BATH TWP. – Jane Kramer thought her campaign for kid-friendly checkout lanes at Meijer had hit a wall — a wall made of sugary snacks and eye candy.

Then a Meijer official called.

Frank Guglielmi, senior director of communications at Meijer, chatted with Kramer on Friday.

“They said that they have heard my message loud and clear,” Kramer said.

While Guglielmi didn’t promise to dump the junk from the checkouts, Kramer felt that at least officials are listening.

Kramer, the mother of a 13-year-old son, has shopped at Meijer for 11 years and reports that she loves the store, except for the checkouts. In December, she launched a petition for kid-friendly checkout aisles. She sent 1,500 signatures to the Grand Rapids-based chain last month.

A Bath Twp. mom is asking Meijer to get rid of sugary treats and racy headlines in the checkout aisles.(Photo: File photo)

Besides candy and pop, the art photographer from Bath Township also wants to kick out the tabloids and racy magazines from the space where inquiring minds might be only ages 6 or 7. She calls the aisles "toxic tunnels of manipulation."

“It bothers me when I see magazine after magazine of half-dressed women,” she said. “What kind of message is that sending to our daughters and sons?"

Her efforts drew widespread media attention earlier this year, including a discussion on ABC’s Good Morning America and a CBC radio interview in Canada.

The reaction generally falls into two camps — those who agree that healthy choices should be the norm and those who think if you don’t like it, just don’t buy it.

Guglielmi told me last week that the company already tests adding healthy choices to checkout lanes though results are considered private, proprietary information.

Though they are testing alternatives, it didn’t sound like bans on candy, pop and tabloids are on the horizon any time soon.

“Our job as a retailer is to provide choices to consumers. It’s not to take away choices,” Guglielmi said.

Nationally, though, the trend is toward healthier choices at the checkout.

Aldi foods has announced plans to go to healthy checkout aisles by the end of the year and CVS plans to replace 25% of its checkout items with healthy choices, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy and research group.

Kramer said Meijer promotes good health and good body images in other ways, such as ending separate plus-size clothing departments. She wants to keep nudging officials along to take that attitude to the checkout aisles.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @JudyPutnam.